[Book Review] The War for AI Supremacy... Ethics Preached, Capital Followed

Parmy Olson's "Supremacy"
Full-scale AI Competition After AlphaGo
Spotlight on the Rivalry Between Altman and Hassabis
The Dual Nature of OpenAI and DeepMind
From Advocating Ethics to Ultimately Compromising with Capital
Also Points Out Issues Such as Male-Dominated Culture and Exclusion of Minorities
Closed and Biased Problems Highlighted
A Phenomenon Born from the Clash of Ethics and Capital

In March 2016, an unprecedented Go match between artificial intelligence (AI) and a human took place in Seoul. The competitors were AlphaGo, developed by the AI company DeepMind, and Lee Sedol of Korea. The two engaged in a fierce battle of moves, with as many as 10 to the power of 170 possible combinations, for over four hours. In the end, the human conceded victory to the AI. AlphaGo won four out of five games. The emergence of AI surpassing human intelligence sent shockwaves and fear, as well as a sense of possibility, throughout the world.

Getty Image Bank

This book closely examines the global rise and development of AI, providing the context for these events. The author, a technology columnist formerly with The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, sheds light on the AI supremacy rivalry between Sam Altman's OpenAI and Demis Hassabis's DeepMind, based on thirteen years of research and countless interviews with industry insiders.

Currently, the world is engaged in a fierce war for AI supremacy. In November 2022, OpenAI, backed by Microsoft (MS), unveiled ChatGPT, opening up a new era in information retrieval. Subsequently, Google DeepMind introduced its own AI chatbot, signaling the start of a full-fledged era of AI competition. In January of this year, a Chinese startup released DeepSeek, which achieved the long-sought goal of lightweight AI, drawing global attention. Alarmed by this, the United States launched the Stargate project, with OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle participating to build an AI supercomputing center worth $500 billion. Last month, the Korean government also announced a plan to support the AI industry with a budget of 100 trillion won. In short, the entire world is striving to secure dominance in AI.

The book focuses on the rivalry between Altman and Hassabis, exploring the global economic, social, and cultural changes brought about by AI development. It delves into how AI has merged with the market to reshape the structure of companies, the processes by which it has accumulated power, and highlights the emergence of new champions who will lead future technological supremacy.

Altman and Hassabis share the distinction of being visionaries who have made significant contributions to AI development. Altman, driven by strong self-confidence since his school days, established his position in Silicon Valley by founding Y Combinator, known as the origin of networking services connecting investors and entrepreneurs. For him, AI was a tool to enrich human life. His vision?to bring economic prosperity to all humanity through AI and enable better lives?was a bold attempt at innovation that combined practicality and public benefit.

In contrast, for Hassabis, a game developer and scientist, AI was somewhat academic and even religious. Deeply interested in Christianity, Hassabis wanted to use AI to solve humanity's age-old mysteries. He sought answers to profound questions such as "What is the purpose of human existence?" and "Did God create humans?" DeepMind, which Hassabis founded, was the first AI startup to declare that it would not use AI for commercial or military purposes. However, unlike its early focus on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) models reflecting the structure of the human brain, memory, and cognition, DeepMind shifted toward commercial applications after being acquired by Google in 2014. The emergence of AlphaGo, the first AI to defeat a human, occurred shortly after the Google acquisition.

In 2015, a year after Google's acquisition of DeepMind, Altman, along with Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, and others, established the nonprofit organization OpenAI, which also initially emphasized ethical use. However, like Google DeepMind, it ultimately prioritized commercial objectives. When Musk sought to use AI for autonomous driving and space engineering, Altman parted ways with him and instead formed a strategic alliance with MS. Yet, in an ironic twist, Altman moved more quickly than anyone toward commercialization by launching ChatGPT in November 2022 to secure funding.

The author points out several issues with AI services in this context. One is that while massive amounts of internet data are collected and used to train AI, there is no disclosure of what data is being used. Cases such as only outputting images of white men for the keyword "CEO" or classifying Black people as "gorillas" underscore the need for rigorous verification of AI technologies.

In addition, the author addresses the problem of male-dominated culture and exclusion of minorities within the AI technology industry, highlighting issues of AI ethics. The author neither takes an optimistic nor a pessimistic view of the future of the AI supremacy race. However, the book makes it clear that depending on how current developments unfold, an unfair future for members of society could arise. The detailed account of how long the current situation?created by the clash of ethics and capital?will last, and what we should focus on during this process, gives readers much to ponder in the age of AI. While it is true that understanding the present is essential for predicting the future, the rapid pace of technological advancement makes the book's content feel somewhat like a story of the past, which is unfortunate.

Supremacy | Written by Parmy Olson | Translated by Lee Soogyeong | Munhakdongne | 436 pages | 25,000 won